Trump Card
by Please Tell Me
Summary: Meet Sam,Axis,Iaso,Lucky,Rena,and Marigold, a cast of OC's from the FMA:Brotherhood cast. Occasional back stories to learn of the parents past. Read to see how each child struggles to become better than the rest- a trump card. LinFan, EdWin, AlMei, Royai.
1. Chapter 1

Part 1- Before the rainfall

Iaso beat the basketball into the cement for like the forty fifth time before finally tossing it up into the basketball hoop. "There, I have finally beat you!" he yelled, pointing a finger at me, as I rested my elbows against the top of the fence.

"Yeah, only took you a century," I muttered, swinging around to grab the basketball and tossed it up and down in my hands, waiting for Rena to get back.

"You are speaking to the prince of Xing, shut your mouth!" he yelled, pointing to his shirt, which me and Rena had vandalized and had cut out green felt so his black T-shirt now read ' you are speaking to the price of Xing'. He got us back, printing the word 'Humonculus' across our forehead in black permanent marker.

"And your speaking to the Elric girl, who is the best basketball player and alchemist," I shouted, copying his moves and pointing a finger at him, while entering the basketball court. "Speaking of alchemists, where is Rena?" I asked, adjusting my tank top I had on, another thing that Fan had vandalized, it had originally said 'Team Edward' from New Moon. Now it reads 'Team Edward Elric', I don't think dad found it funny.

"She left like five minutes ago, don't worry, I'm sure Sparky will be back soon," he said, scooping the ball from my hands, hands and throwing it into the battered hoop, backwards, and some how making it in, the net swooshing as the basketball came back down to earth because of gravity. "Besides, she's an assassin, didn't her mom give her gun at the age of four or something?"

"Five," I answered, looking up the street as if hoping to see Rena and her golden hair (done up in pigtails)and black eyes running towards us. " And her father gave her that glove for using flame alchemy, be careful or she might hurt you," I said, grabbing the blue and white basketball and dribbling it, then positioned my hands, jumped, and …missed?

MISSED?

"Haha, looks like the great Sam isn't that great of a basketball player after all." joked Iaso, grabbing the basketball again, and retreating to the free throw line.

Knives. The ones that aunt Mei had given me. They were in my pocket, and he wasn't out of range yet….

"Why are you guys here? I thought you were at the park, and I had to look for you for a whole two minutes!" Rena, AKA Sparky, cart wheeling into the court. Her blond hair clipped back like her mothers' (once and a lifetime seen thing), wearing a black tank top that had flames curling up at the bottom of it, and white shorts. You could see where her gun was attached to one of her belt loops and the white glove with the transmutation circle drawn on it, slipping slowly off her hand, until she pulled it back up so it would stay.

"Oh no, two whole minutes out of Sparky's life! How will she live?" Iaso said sarcastically, turning around so he wouldn't hear our girly chit-chat. That also meant he didn't see the knife I had thrown at him, unfortunately, he moved and it only cut off a piece of his hair before it clattered to the side of the fence, and fell down.

Sparky-I mean Rena- cocked an eyebrow, looked straight at him with her black eyes, waved her finger at him giving him the Oh-No-You-Didn't lip signal, well, at least until Iaso copied her moves and she straight up gave him the finger.

"Mom says you can come over, Sam, and she already called Winry, and she says yes, and Iaso-" she paused, looking over towards the boy who was currently shoving pebbles up his nose, and shrugged "Dad says if you ever touch me, he'll personally burn you to death, and you should consider it an honor."

"Of course I do, I have always considered being burned to death an honor."

"Good, I'll remember to mention that to dad," Rena said, suddenly snapping her fingers, which emitted a spark like a firework, and nothing else. "That sucks, still sparks."

"Thus the name Sparky," I said, pulling some chalk out of my pocket, and letting it slide through my fingers and down into the ground. White chalk. Transumation circle.

"Guys, I have the best idea to prove that I am the best alchemist," I said, waving my hands to them, so that we all joined our hands around each others neck to make a small circle.

Rena's house is nice. It always smells like coffee... I'm not really sure why. Anyways, sometimes I just wish we had each other's life, on one hand I have a loud family, everyone is always screaming and yelling and trying to ignore each other. On Rena's hand she's an only child, has a dog (that's it, really), and her parent's adore her.

"Ok, Rena, we'll be back in the morning hopefully, Sam you're welcome to stay, , if you need anything call your older brother, Sam, Full Metal's coming with us," Mustang- Rena's father- said, kissing the top of her head, while Hawk Eye followed him out the door.

"Quick, grab the stuff!" I shouted, when the door clicked shut. I leaped over one of the chairs and grabbed the blanket, flashlight, matches, lantern, and the various minerals that we had stolen from the store cupboards. Rena followed more slowly, taking the lantern out of my hand and swallowing all the popcorn in her mouth. She immediately washed it down with a swing of water from her pink glass that was resting on the counter. I guess even Rena can't handle that much salt.

"This is dangerous. You know your father lost his arm and leg doing this," Rena said, fear filling her voice.

"Correction, he lost his leg, he lost his arm transmuting my uncles body into a suit of armor," I said, flicking the flashlight on. It stuttered to light with a flicker before showing up a bright orange. "Crap, almost out of batteries, all we got is matches and it's supposed to rain tonight."

"So can we cut this and just play a game or something?" Rena asked, carefully slipping the white glove off her hand and into her pocket; it would be useless in rain. I think her number one fear is rain because one time she hid under like five blankets to block the sound, and made me hide too, let me tell you, it is HOT.

"No, of course not, and come on, I bet Iaso is waiting right now for us," I said grabbing her light blue shirt that was made out of the softest material ever. Only children are so lucky. I opened the door, flinging it wide open, and dragging her out into the fresh, cold, night air. The stars twinkled above us and the moon looked a eerie white as if telling us not to do this. I felt something cold run down my back, and just tried to ignore it, thinking it was nerves.

Then I remembered who was with me. My best friend. The flame alchemist daughter. An only child. The girl who just put an ice cube down my shirt. Rena.

"Hey, stop that!" I said, trying to fish the ice cube out of my shirt and swatting Rena's hand away, while she was snickering at me jumping around. "Not funny," I said, grabbing the slippery little bugger and flinging it at Rena, who melted it with a small flicker of sparks.

"Nice try, next time try better," she said, practicing flickering her fingers over and over. Finally a small flame popped up. "Haha, got it!" She shouted, shoving the flame right in my face, almost burning off my eyelashes.

"Hey Sparky, mind putting out the light before you kill me?" I asked, brushing her hands away slightly. "And stick to guns, they're more your forte," I said, weaving my way through the yard to the road. I turned my neck sharply just in time to see Rena die the flame down, looking depressed.

"Hey girls, need an escort through the dark?" Iaso said, leaning against a tree lazily, watching me and Rena approach slowly. His eyes flickered to the hand in which Rena had the glove on. "Spark- Rena, is it safe for you to have the glove on? It's supposed to rain."

"I don't need you telling me what to do," Rena said, flipping one pigtail over her shoulder and flouncing ahead of me and Iaso. When Rena gets like this you should just leave her alone, or she'll melt you down to molten lava.

"Sparky, try not to get to much of a hot head," joked Iaso, narrowly dodging the fireball that Rena just learned to produce, watching as it singed his clothes. "Hey, just because you're the furers' daughter does not give you permission to singe the prince of Xing's clothes!"

Rena gave him the finger, "Like I care, Eliza Samuel this wasn't my idea so you better hurry this up." I pouted, jutting out my lower lip and crossing my arms. How dare she use my real name, Eliza Samuel- sounds like a guy name, except with enough class and charm to be mine.

"Come on, I'm not waiting for it to rain," Iaso said, pointing up ahead towards Rena and then to the sky showing the swirling black clouds above us.

"Whatever, we're almost at the park anyways," I muttered, ducking my head below a branch so I wouldn't be clobbered. "After that, you can go back to Xing, Rena will be my bodyguard, and I should be the next furer by… oh, next year or so."

"What if something goes wrong? Did you ever take that into account?" asked Rena, standing in the dried mud, waiting for us to catch up, then immediately falling into step with us.

"If it does, I want you to promise to kill me right away. I don't want to be ashamed," I said, pointing to the gun safely strapped to Rena's side. Rena touched it softly then jerked her hand away roughly. "No, no matter what you will stand proud and tall no matter what happens to you. Do you got me Sam?" She picked me up by my collar, almost strangling me, then let go after her heroic speech.

"Well lady, and prince of Xing, we have arrived at our destination," I whispered, looking at the broken down basketball court only Me, Iaso, Rena, and a couple of seniors go to. "Who's ready to break a law?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, I wasn't really sure how the story would've gone if she actually did human transmutation, so try not to yell or review to harshly about that, and I'll try to upload faster from now on! -Miki**

Part 2- Pouring

To be honest, I was afraid of this, afraid that I might never come back, might never get to see my friends again, or most importantly- adopt a cat and name it Lilac. But after Rena through down salt and all those other ingredients I never remember the name of, I began to calm down.

" Well Sparky, allow the girl some space," Iaso said from behind me, and I felt a wind rush past and me and a second later I realized that it was time for rain.

"Um… guys… can we actually skip this, I'm kind of freaking out over here," I said, looking down at the knife in my hand. Looking at it made me feel sick, I mean I've used knives for cooking and stuff, but, now in the middle of the night it seems dangerous somehow, like I'm going to suddenly start attacking everyone like I'm Jack the Ripper or something.

"YES! I AGREE WITH SAM!" Rena said way to loudly and quickly, thronging her hands up in the air wildly and turning expectantly towards Iaso. Iaso shrugged, and I grinned happily.

"Thank you, I'm going home to play piano," Rena said sarcastically, waving her hands as we started back home. Iaso shrugged "You guys know I'm going to have to leave soon, right?"

Both me and Rena turned on him.

"Come on, when I first met you guys I told you I was only staying for a year, and it's going to be August in a week."

Rena yawned unhappily "Recite that when I'm awake and actually care."

Thunder rolled over us, and I felt a few droplets of rain splash onto me. The next second all I could see was black and feel the dripping wetness of my now stringy hair. I latched one hand onto the back of Iaso's- possibly Rena's- shirt and hoped they could navigate through this rain.

"So Sparky, are you guys ever going to visit me when I'm back in Xing?"

I could practically hear Rena shrug uncomfortably.

"You guys have to meet mom and dad, they're really nice, and my little sister- Lucky- you guys would love her she has the best luck, is almost an assassin, and can tell you the best stories," Iaso said happily.

"Sounds like you miss her," I said, wiping some water off my face, trying to keep balance, I kept falling over rocks and bushes.

Then…

CRACK! The whole street lit up for a second with lightening and I glimpsed Rena's face right before I tripped. I felt my body front flip and dive into the cemented road and felt a searing pain through my head and the last thing I remember was this:

"_Get out of our seat, those are ours," I said, twirling a lollipop around in my mouth, savoring the lemon- root beer combination. Rena sat next to me, done up in with a long blond ponytail her black eyes staring at the kid wildly._

"_Last time I checked, you weren't sitting here," The annoyance said, stretching out in the bus seat. I scowled, removed the lollipop from my mouth and stuck it in his hair. A second later Rena held her gun up to his head. It was funny- for some odd reason, the teachers allowed her the gun. He flinched, and Rena pulled the trigger, grinning happily, and I already knew what would happen next._

_Confetti paper popped out in multiple colors, spraying the kids hair and body, me and Rena burst out laughing. _

"_Nice, trying to assassinate a Emperor's son, real appropriate."_

"_Listen kid, if I was trying to assassinate you all I would have to do is use this one," Rena said, wiping away tears from her eyes and pulling out the real gun._


	3. Chapter 3

**So far I've been thinking abut which character I'm most like, and I think I've decided on Rena, who I find very optimistic, cute, and a killer (Happiness). In this chapter you get to meet Sam's brother, who doesn't have any dialogue… I'll remember to pencil that in for the next chapter. -Miki**

**Part 3- Waking up**

**In my dream my skull was being pushed against dry crisp paper covered pillows, and sheets that really needed to be ironed. In my dream, I didn't fall. In my dream I wasn't so clumsy, and it wasn't raining so hard I couldn't see my face.**

**Rolling over, I inhaled deeply to smell a strong sense of cleaning material, and metal, and I swear to god, I could smell the needles. Of course I don't swear to god because I'm an atheist and by doing so I would be backstabbing my dad so hard it would be like saying I ate the last piece of mom's apple pie. A total backstab.**

**I opened my eyes slightly, large enough to take in that this in fact was a hospital- rats- and totally my worst nightmare. Two chairs shoved against a yellow wall (vomit anyone?) and a book about the philosophers stone resting on the edge of one of them, a coat slung over the back.**

**To my side I could see the faint outline of my wrist covered in white bandages and an IV hanging on a wire full of liquid, just in case. I groaned and pulled the stiff hospital pillow over my head, ignoring the searing pain in my wrist, ankle, and head. **

"**Your awake!" **

**A second - maybe less- later all the wind in my body was knocked out when Rena jumped on top of me, hugging me tightly. How the heck she knew I was awake was waaaaaay beyond me, I mean I obviously had the pillow over my head so you couldn't see my eyes.**

"**Careful Sparky, you may kill her," Iaso said, just as I pulled the pillow down from my eyes so I tasted paper and a careful outlining of cotton. He had his hands in his pockets and grabbing the book I had noticed earlier, sliding it out of view from Rena and me. He caught me looking and quirked a quick smile, dropping the book and putting his hair into a ponytail.**

**Rena slithered off my bed and dropped to the floor. "I thought you died!"**

"**No you didn't." Iaso was back in the conversation, leaning against the vomit walls carefully. Inoticed a large burn mark across his arm, he never goes anywhere without his coat so why….**

**I looked back to Rena who was quivering, wearing only her black tank top. Iaso must have gave her his coat and when they got into the hospital and she dried the glove, she must have burned Iaso for a still unknown reason.**

"**Ok, so I lied, sorry god, and by the way-"**

"**Well, looks like you have quite a lot of visitors, now doesn't it?" A nurse, about five feet two inches, female and wearing a hospital coat. The woman held a new roll of white bandages and bottle of pain killers, for some odd reason, I have a pit feeling it's for me.**

"**Hello! Welcome, please don't kill me!" I said sarcastically with a touch of optimistic. Rena took this as an opportunity to start unwrapping bandages from my ankle. Iaso followed in suit, unwrapping them from my wrist, tugging on it slightly.**

**The nurse, her name tag glaring against the florescence light bulbs so it was unreadable, was dubbed Goldilocks in my mind. Her hair was curly and a blondish brown, with blue eyes to match and small brown freckles dotting her button nose. Pure definition of Goldilocks.**

**Goldilocks unwrapped the bandages from my head kindly, accidentally bumping her hand against my forehead so I felt a rush of pain flow through my body. **

**Rena finished first, and she threw away a large bandage into a small garbage next to my bed, that had a bag stuffed roughly in it. Goldilocks threw the bandages over to Rena, and Rena quickly wrapped my ankle and my leg splintered with pain.**

"**Well honey, I have good news and bad news," said Goldilocks, setting two pink pills and a cup water by the bed stand. It took me a second to register the fact that they were done bandaging me up.**

"**Well, go on, don't make me wait," I said, picking up one of the pills and putting it my mouth. It tasted like flour. Iaso whacked my back so hard the pill came flying out of my mouth. "Jeez, trying to make me throw up my lungs too?" I asked, coughing hard.**

**Iaso picked up the saliva pill and held it close to his face. "What kind of medicine is this?" he asked, tossing it back at Goldilocks. She looked mildly surprised, catching the pill and putting it back on my table. "I made it myself, it's a home remedy."**

**Goldilocks cleared her throat, glared daggers at Iaso, and looked back at me. "Well Miss. Elric you see, you have a mild concussion and a fractured wrist." **

"**That's not to bad," implied Rena, scratching at the bedside table with a stick she got from who knows where, so far she had made a inch deep hole. **

"**Um… well, her leg also happens to be… well, to put it simply, her bone has been splintered and she'll have to wear bandages for about a month and a half, and use crutches too," Goldilocks explained, walking backwards towards the halls. "And Eliza, your family is here to visit you… yours too Rena, and don't forget to take those pills."**

**Then she was gone, slipping out of the room like she was some criminal who had just been caught on film by a few lonely five year olds with lollipops. **

**Axis, my loud obnoxious, loud (the list goes on and on, trust me) burst into the room, blindly attacking me for a hug. I'm pretty sure I mentioned blindly right? Well, he had his eyes screwed tightly shut, so instead of hugging me he had a grasp on Iaso, who was currently kicking him.**

**A minute later mom came in, wrapping her arms around me, her soft lemon colored hair falling on me. From behind her, I could see dad prying Axis off Iaso. Mom brushed some of my hair back, before whispering in my ear "You can pierce your ears tomorrow," and I felt a surge of happiness.**

**I saw Rena being attacked by her father, being hugged so hard she was crying tears of joy and hugging him back. Out of the corner of her dad's eye you could see him giving Iaso a dirty look. I felt a tear slide down my cheek and I wiped it away happily.**

**This is what it meant to be a family.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4- Fog

Goldilocks ( yeah, you know the crazy nurse lady) stopped by our house yesterday, in tow with white bandages (galore), wooden crutches, which by the way hurt my armpits when I use them, and more pink painkillers. If I gave Iaso the chance, he probably would have fed them to the birds.

Two times a day, two pills each time, drink water thoroughly after word, yeah, exact wordings on the bottle, not to mention the fact that it had a name that was so unpronounceable I didn't even try ( who wants to try saying: "I'm going to go take my medicine, you know, Ginnaglofiarinaly- thingy mabob that goes on for a while."

Today me and Rena are going to get our ears pierced, mom is going to do it for us. Wake up, eat whatever, avoid milk, place two pills in mouth and drink water (pretend you are not chocking), find Rena (usually by random shops or ramen stands, talking to random people), and run back to mom. Yup, all together that makes my morning schedule.

Me first, Rena didn't have a problem with it, to be honest I think she's scared of needles. I've already have had my ears pierced once, a jade stone given to me by dad for my first birthday. This time it would be something I made on my own, welding metal with moms help, in the shape of a daisy flower.

Mom sat me down on a stool, Rena held the crutches, eyeing them warily as if to say, I am NEVER going to break my foot. Books scattered over the wooden desk, wrenches and other random objects, which made me think about how safe it was for my mom to pierce your ears. I shook my head, she did it before, she can do it again, what do you have fuzz or something in your head? No, just fog.

Mom was quick about it, though it made me flinch all the same. She stuck a pin in my earlobe, after piercing all the way through the skin she pulled it out and slipped a piece of thin string through my ear where she had pierced, then she found the earring slipped the string out and shoved the earring in, sliding a holder onto the back. And repeat.

Then I took my crutches(OW!) and placed them against the hardwood floor and lifted myself. I spun Rena backwards into the chair, and limped off into the kitchen, fumbling for the clear pill bottle. The little stubs on the end of the crutches made a thumping noise every time I swung them forward, and instantly I just don't understand why I didn't beg Axis to get them.

I had to strain and reach for the pill bottle, because I am so hopelessly short (ahem, thank you god for making Rena shorter than me) until Axis came into the kitchen apparently looking for food or something, I mean, he looked like he just woke up. He picked me up, almost like I was lightweight and sat me on the counter, holding my crutches.

"Thanks Axis," I said brightly, grabbing the pill bottle and shoving to in my mouth right in between my front teeth. He muttered something I couldn't understand that sounded along the lines of a swear word and a 'your welcome', maybe both, but I doubt I'll ever know.

He handed me a glass of water without turning his front towards me, stifling a yawn with his hand. I wrapped my hand around it a took a gulp of water, letting the coldness cascade down my throat. Axis lifted me back down towards the floor and handed me my crutches, kissed the top of my head, and continues his search for food.

Back in mom's workroom Rena flashed me two new earrings in her ears, both a small sapphire stone. I had forgotten she had brought those, she had turned them into earrings last night just for this purpose.

"They're pretty Rena! Let's go show Iaso!" I said, grabbing her arm to steady myself. She walked with me in pace, keeping in sync with the hobbled steps.

Iaso had looked at the earrings, leaning against the fence to get a better view, but other than that he had no real interest in them. "They look beautiful Sparky," he said, brushing her hair behind her ears so that the seep blue sapphires shimmered against the sunlight.

"Your leaving in August, right Iaso?" I said, trying to keep my facts straight, this fog in my head was doing a number on me and I couldn't remember if it was August or October or maybe some make believe month. Yeah, Likehad.

Iaso nodded. "Yup, Lucky called me last night, and apparently my parents allowed her too much sugar because she was talking all jitterly and hyper, until Mom took the phone away from her, and told me to come home on the eleventh. I'll leave the tenth."

Rena touched her earrings solemnly looking at Iaso closely. "You know that me and Sam will miss you right?"

"Of course Sparky, and I'll call you guys every weekend and tell my sister, mom, and dad all about you guys."

"And to be extra nice you'll stop calling me Sparky, right?" She asked, flipping her hair over her shoulders and smiling brightly.

"No, consider it your nickname," Iaso said, smiling back, reaching for her hand and slipping her glove off. Rena let out a strangled kind of sound, as if to object but Iaso set the glove on top of her blond head.

"Mom, I have a question." I said, tucking my crutches deeper into my arm, it fell numb in a second. Mom tucked her lemon colored hair behind her ear and nodded towards me, resting the auto-mail leg on her knee. I still don't understand why she makes all the random legs and arms.

"Well, this will be random, but can I go to Xing to see uncle Al?" I asked, fiddling with a piece of cold metal in my hands. First lie to mom in my whole life. She looked closely at me, making a few adjustments on the leg. Her hands trembled before she looked at me again. "Is this what you want?"

I nodded, swallowing my spit. I nodded, plastering a fake smile on my face. She pulled a small quirky grin on her face before saying "Ok then, you can take a train ride there when you want."

I grinned again "August tenth."

**AUGUST**

**I don't know how, and I don't want to know how. Rena had somehow persuaded her father to allow her to go to Xing too, on the exact same day, so she sat there next to me on the bench while we waited for Iaso to finally show. Rena had packed a small blue bag with her toothbrush, two changes of clothes, and hair accessories. Typical Rena.**

**I, on the other hand, had packed a brown bag with almost the exact same stuff as Rena except equipped with a book about Alkahestry.**


	5. Chapter 5

Thank you PrincessGummyBear for reviewing, whoever you are! I realized that you (as in PrincessGummyBear) asked about whom Sam was trying to revive, so I'm going to slowly drop hints. I'll give you the first one: It's not related to Sam. Well, have fun guessing!

Chapter 5- Lucky, the star

We were almost late. Iaso had arrived in time for the train… about two minutes before it was supposed leave. Rena had fallen asleep so I had to push her off the bench to wake her up. She wasn't happy, and started yelling. Then we heard the train whistle and we were off running, me swearing under my breath. We actually made it on the train, seconds before it started moving, but, made it all the same. The train whistled again and it started chugging off. I swerved around to see the yellow striped wheels turning in sync. I almost lost my balance, I had figured I didn't need the crutches anymore and had just wrapped my bandages extra thick. It was slightly uncomfortable but, not that painful.

Rena grabbed my hand, which avoided my fall. She jerked back and we both stumbled on top of Iaso in the hallway. The passengers looked at us surprised and an elderly gentleman requested to be moved. Rena giggled and Iaso looked at her like she was suddenly announced she was using drugs.

We made our way to the back of the train, looking at the different people as we passed. Once at the back I sank into one of the seats, rubbing my ankle. Iaso plops down on the other side of me, a window seat and Rena sits down next to him.

I rustled through my bag, trying to find the Alkahestry book. I crack it open, which makes a small dust cloud practically float up in the air, and I begin reading the prologue.

"You know if you want to know Alkahestry, you should ask my sister," I jerk my head up to see Iaso staring at me, talking in almost a whisper. He nods "I guess not really Alkahestry itself… the basics; she made up her own set of rules for it."

"She made up her own rules? How old is she exactly?" Rena asked, tearing her vision away from the endless sand, dried grass, and old cacti.

"Seven…. Eight tomorrow."

"And the rules?"

"Made them when she was five, couldn't understand Alkahestry well enough so she did it as she pleased." Iaso said, looking out at the desert. Soon after that the train stopped for a few minutes so several people could get off at the town before the next that was before Dracmau. I could practically hear Rena fall asleep against Iaso's shoulder, it was that boring.

"He's here!" announced Lucky, jumping out of her seat. Ling squinted in the distant, sword balanced on knee. All he could see was endless desert.

"He is not here and if you give me another false alarm I swear to god I'll rip those little vocal chords straight out of your throat!" He said, tickling his daughter in the stomach. She laughed loudly, high pitched screams mixed in with them.

Suddenly she stopped and looked up. "He's here!"

Ling looked off at the distance, seeing desert again. Lucky scrambled out from her father's grip and planted herself firmly in the sand. She was bored of sitting still on a bench waiting for her brother! And on top of that Daddy didn't want to go alone, so she had volunteered to go along- huge mistake.

Being that she could sense souls she was like an extra sensitive toy, picking everything up in a fifty mile radius. Ling had only brought her along because he knew she would be able to pick up Iaso's soul right away. Now she was just messing with him.

"Listen, if you're not going to do this right then I'll just pick you up and carry you right on back to the palace."

Lucky nodded absentmindedly, patting the soft dirt with her hands and drawing with her fingers. "I understand Daddy. Oh, and he's here."

Ling looked out once again to the desert, seeing the puff of smoke whirling in the air slightly. He looked back at his daughter who hadn't even turned her eyes towards the train. His daughter was truly extraordinary

"Rena wake up."

. Rena mumbled something in her sleep and repositioned herself against Iaso, her head sleeping awkwardly on his shoulder.

Iaso called her name again, poking her head with a finger. She shook her head slightly, yawning, before she woke up and sat ramrod straight. "Did anyone else feel that?"

"Umm…. What?" I asked, looking around for some kid that might have dumped a bucket of water over her head.

"I don't know, it just felt off….."

"Lucky." Iaso said, looking out the window. "When she senses a soul she sends a warning almost, trying to figure out what compounds make up the soul." He pointed out the window to a girl outside the window, drawing in the sand.

"That's her."

"She's cute," I said, looking at her long black hair done up in two French braids, ribbons trailing to her knees, blue eyes wide and hopeful, a dress the color of light gold swirling around her in the rough breeze.

"Hiya, Iaso!" Lucky and her father said together, waving. Lucky hadn't even turned around. I rubbed my temples, if they could be heard through inch thick glass, how does the mother have sanity? Iaso smiled at my doubtful face, picking up Rena hand and pulling her after him into the aisle. I followed after. Outside it was dry heat. There was no breeze, like there was a second ago so Lucky's dress fell limply to her side, no longer blowing in the breeze.

Lucky attacked Iaso as soon as he got down from the steps, which meant Iaso, Lucky, and Rena fell. Lucky and Iaso's father picked them up and pulled them both into a tight embrace. "I love you guys so much!"

I watched Rena, a small tear falling down her cheeks. And I feel I'm the one to blame.


	6. Backstory

People! I need to warn you, this has really nothing to do with the story line, this is just explaining about how and why Lan Fan and Ling got married (Ahem, they are Iaso's and Lucky's parents). Another thing, please be warned, there is an OC, however she is in there only to represent a clan, and she is completely nice and an eventual friend of LanFan. Comment if you would like me to post this as a seperate story instead of in this story. -Miki

LanFan sat outside the door, the thick ivy growing around the door that Lanfan was sitting next to. LanFan had long since gotten tired of waiting for this chick to show up... if she ever was going to. The concrete she was sitting against was cold, and she thought she was going to forever smell like mud and those poor lilies that surroundered her.

"Hiya! Bored yet?" Ling was leaning against a tree, his legs swinging midair while he ate an apple. He looked uncomfortable too, sitting on a tree, looking around solemnly.

LanFan shrugged. She wasn't supposed to show feelings of anything beside concern for the one she was supposed to be protecting. Ling hopped down from the tree, straightening his emporer robes as he padded across to LanFan.

"You know, it's ok to show emotion." he looked around at the small patches of grass and overgrowing ivy. "So, let me think this girl... from the Genojji clan or something-"

"Genji. Her name is Mauri." LanFan said icely. The girl was supposed to be appointed Ling's first wife, but, for some odd reason, she sounded suspicious. For one: Mauri was usually a name given to the lower class, like LanFan herself, not really for a princess. But, she never knew how rich or poor that clan was.

A minute after she spoke a carriage pulled up, a pale buttercream color, and mahogany wood for wheels, they certainly didn't look poor. A man jumped down from where he had held black the reins to two large horses and opened the side of a the carriage. A girl with colored hair, jumped out, not waiting for help, and landed with a thud against the soft tan earth.

Fourteen or fifteen the girl was extremely pretty, wearing a blue robe designed with little butterflies ovet it, her hair pulled back into a ponytail and a few whisps of it framing her face in curls.

"Are you the guard here?" She asked pointing at LanFan, a huge smile plastered against her face, her hands delicate and fragile. LanFan nodded, looking down to the princesses shoes. They were a black slipper with a little butterfly and pin attatched near the end of her foot, where her toes began.

Suddenly her hands were thrown around the bodyguards neck, wrapping her in a tight hug. "Wow! My name is Mauri! I want to be your best friend, and we will, I just know we will! Won't we LanFan!"

"How do you know my name?" LanFan asked, wiggling away from the insane psychopath, who just kept hugging her closer.

"A princess always knows everybodys name, oh Mast- Emperor Ling! Hello!" Mauri let go of LanFan quickly, dropping to her knees quickly, shaking her head and standing back up to shake Ling's hand. It looked like it almost came out of it's socket.

"Oh! Flowers!" the she dropped down to the ground and picked the lillies, pressing them against her nose to smell them. Ling and LanFan looked at each other and shrugged, looking at Mauri pick the flowers.

Ling and Mauri were seated up at the highest point of the ballroom, watching all of the guests. Mauri jumped out of her seat so often to play with the children you would think that the chair was on fire. LanFan was standing next to Mauri, since the girl had insisted upon it, saying that she would need LanFan to escort her to the bathroom eventually.

The ball had been thrown to celebrate Ling going to be married to princess Mauri. Lots of people had come up to congratulate them, but Ling had simpily walked away and Mauri had asked why they were congratulating her.

"LanFan, I have to pee, can you take me down to the bathrooms?" Mauri asked suddenly, pulling on LanFan's elbow. LanFan let out a breath of exhaustion and nodded. She dragged Mauri down a hallway to the end where the bathrooms were held. She positioned herself outside of the door to wait for Mauri to finish.

Instead, Mauri had pulled LanFan inside.

"What the h- Mauri, what are you doing?" LanFan stuttered, watching Mauri start to take off her black and red kimono.

"We'll be switching for the rest of the night... we do look alike." Mauri explained, dropping the cloth down to the floor. She held out and an outstretched hand to LanFan. LanFan snarled under her breath, now she had to listen to Mauri is was in code nine section four:

_All guards, maids, servants, and ect. must report and listen to those of higher place. If not done so said guard, maid, servant, or ect, shall face certain consequences, see page eighty-nine._

LanFan stripped quickly, hoping to dear god that nobody walked in to see this humilation. Mauri slipped into the black cloth pants quickly, almost like she had been doing t her whole life, then she puled the skintight shirt over her head followed by the heavier overcoat. LanFan pulled the silk over her body, tieing a knot in the back of it. It took her a moment to realize it was several inches above her knees.

"Ok, lets go LanFan!" Mauri said, grabbing LanFan's arm and begging to race down the hall. For a princess, she was rather fast.

"Wait, you don't know anything about being a guard!" LanFan exclaimed, reaching for Mauri as they stopped in front of the door to lead to the ball. Mauri plastered a grin on her face and pulled out a kunai from the pocket to Lanfan's clothes. She spun it around on her finger and held her finger to her lips.

Mauri opened the door, strutting out, then went and positioned herself next to her chair. Ling watched her with a wierd and odd expression, one eyebrow raised in suspision. LanFan sat down in the chair next to Ling, glancing at Mauri uneasily. She didn't hear Ling calling her name until Mauri pointed to Ling next to her. She probably didn't hear Ling since he was calling for Mauri.

"Do you feel better?" he asked, staring at Mauri. It took me a second to figure out that Mauri had forgotten to put her hair in a bun and it fell to just past her shoulders-just like mine.

I nodded and shot a worried look at Mauri, who hadn't moved an inch. I liked her calmness over this whole thing, it made me feel better about the whole thing.

Mauri took a drink from the cup, enjoyng the taste of the drink apparently, since she didn't draw it away from her mouth for a few seconds.

"You did good LanFan," Mauri said, smiling happily, she brushed her hand in front of LanFan, showing the kimono that still hung to LanFan. "Ever considering being a double?"

LanFan laughed. "No, I'm sorry Mauri, but I don't. You still have to tell me about how you were able to watch me and ... Ling without fidgeting. I'm sorry Mauri but, you can't stay still for more than two seconds."

"Oh, it's easy for a bodyguard."

LanFan spit out the water from her mouth, it sprayed out into the open air around the white balcony they were talking on. "Your a bodyguard?"

"You couldn't guess? Good, I guess that means I'm safe." Mauri said happily, she took another long drink from her glass. LanFan blinked, looking at Mauri like she had just invented psycho killing, and she was the first murderer.

"But- you came here as a princess..."

"And I felt so horrible about it. I was the only choice, all the princesses in the palace became sick and couldn't make it, and I was the only choice left... and I was the survival of the clan. When I got here... well, I kind of caught the emperor looking at you... and he swore me into secrecy about it... and it felt so horrible, knowing that I was here and that he didn't even love me. Not really that. HE WAS NICE TO ME!" Mauri now had a hold of LanFan, shaking her angerily, tears streaming down her face.

"It's not like I actually wanted to be a concubine... I mean, that's gross, and the thought of it... I mean he's a nice guy and everything... but, Lan I'm engaged! The guy asked me right before I had to come here, and even though Ling's nice and everything..."

"You thought that if you could get me to fall in love with the pri- Ling in return, they woud allow you to go without being a concubine, right?" LanFan asked. Mauri nodded.

"Mauri, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but that's not how stuff works around here. Even if I did love the prince-"

"Are you saying you do? Or are you saying you don't?" Ling said, making his entrance by stepping out from behind a large marble column and walking calmly towards the girls. Mauri let go of LanFan's shoulders and bowed deeply. "Young master." she said in a LanFan voice.

"Give me credit. I was listening the whole time. I know that you two switched outfits too. You may look alike, but, you too have completely different personalities." his mouth twitched. "Like, for the fact that Mauri would never dance with me, LanFan never scratches her nose, and also, Mauri, LanFan eats a lot more."

Mauri slapped him across the face. "Sorry, but I don't love you, and I never have, never will."

Ling laughed "Thank you, then you are dismissed, after all, I don't love you either."

Mauri's mouth opened in an angry comeback before she closed it again and stalked off, back into the warm air of the palace.

LanFan looked uneasily at Ling. She had violated so many different rules in one night... she should probably be locked in a box, sent across an ocean, and forced to live in Dracmau for the rest of my life.

"Well... so... um, am... am I gong to be punished?" she asked finally, looking back into the lighted area of the palace, she could faintly see Mauri hiding behind a marble column.

"Oh! LanFan I forgot you were there!" Ling said. He began digging through his pockets. "Look, Al gave this to me."

It was a folded piece of paper with some words scrawled on it. "What is it?"

"It's from Ed, he got engaged to Winry, read it."

She unfolded it, keeping an eye on Ling, it seemed like somebody had let him near the alchol again... The paper wasn't from Ed at all, in fact it appeared that Ling had wrote it himself. She looked closer at the words... they had been written in amestrian so it would take a few minutes...

After five minutes she was cursing amestrian, all amestrians, Edward, and Ling's god awful handwriting. It took her a few more minutes to crack the freaking code._ June 14, watch those who are closest to you, something bad might happen._

She looked up at Ling, what kind of foreshadowing was this? Maybe this wasn't Ling's handwriting anymore...

Ling did propose to LanFan. LanFan said yes. This was two months later. June 14. The day Mauri left to return to the Genji clan. Half an hour after much squeling and congratulations (she called Winry, who had actually been married to Ed recently and Ling just got his time mixed up) a guard came with a note in hand.

"Future empress, LanFan, I am sorry to interupt but... Mauri has died... it was in an accident, she fell out of the carriage. She left this note for you." The guard held out the flimsy white piece of paper and gave it to LanFan. She unfolded it and dismissed the guards.

_LanFan,_

_If this reaches you that means I'm dead and the guards have searched my body. Don't cry and don't be afraid. I have something for you. It's a key, but you can only open it when you truly have a family. Do you got that Lan?_

_Mauri._

LanFan felt tears splash down onto the paper, smudging the ink. Ling wrapped his hands around her comfortingly. "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry."

Does that explain it? I hope so, and just so you know, the key does come into play.


	7. Chapter 7

Part 6- Sickness

The palace was large and echoey. It almost made me appreciate the little town of Resembol. Lucky seemed to be able to fill up the whole palace by talking, singing, or dancing. Whatever you did you could hear her while she was sleeping, talking through it, I swear to god somebody had put that girl on drugs.

Iaso didn't seem to mind his sister, actually he filled up the palace with just as much noise as she did, playing with her, or snarling with Lucky's dog to see who got the dog toy. The whole house was chaos and the only time Lucky stopped was to consult her mother or father or when she was painting.

The girl had skill. Her painting was almost always accurate. The first week we were here she had been painting a bowl of fruit. This had worked out until Iaso had grabbed an apple and ate it- core, seed, stem and all- which had happened to be the only piece of fruit that Lucky hadn't painted. That earned him a free gift of being chased around the palace for twenty minutes by an angry Lucky.

Her mother was sweet, she didn't yell, painted with Lucky, sparred occasionally with Iaso while me and Rena watched. It was hard to believe that this women used to be a bodyguard, she was pretty, graceful, and tried to always look happy.

Iaso seemed to be glad to be back home, when he had first came here he had showed me and Rena the garden, the place that Lucky had spent forever growing. Lilies, daises, dragonsnaps, Camillas, and roses all lined up in a pretty order, a stone sidewalk throughout with different colored stones and a small pond in the middle.

Rena wasn't adapting well to the hot weather apparently, the odd fact is was that she didn't sweat. She shivered. It was so creepy, she slept with a bundle of blankets and all the windows closed in her room. A week after we were at the palace I began to notice that Rena had started to look pale.

"I'm so pretty, pretty! So pretty pretty!" sang Lucky, dropping flowers from the garden into different vases around the room, occasionally stopping to smell the flowers. "Pretty. Pretty, yes I am so pretty!"

Iaso was holding the basket of flowers that Lucky had picked so that she could come around and refill her hands and drop them into more vases. Rena had fallen asleep his shoulder, for like the fifth time that day, it was like she made his shoulder into her own personal pillow. Why he dealt with that was beyond me.

"Ok! Iaso, we need to go make Mom's painting room prettier! She will be so proud!" Lucky said, going on to continue her song. I looked at her dance and twirl around the room. Hard to believe she has kunai hidden under her dress.

One thing that didn't explain Lucky. "Lucky why do you wear Amestrian dresses?"

Lucky stopped singing right in between two vocals and turned to stare at me. "Because they're so pretty!" then she hugged herself and placed the last flower into a vase. "Ok. Onto Mom's painting room!"

Iaso pointed to Rena and mouthed to Lucky that Rena was sleeping. Lucky shrugged and grabbed Rena's arm lightly. She shook her, jerking her back and forth. "Rena wake up!"

Lucky's hand slipped down into Rena's. She jumped back quickly. "Rena! Wake up! Your running a fever!"

Rena's eyes fluttered and she looked straight at Lucky, her coal black eyes staring at her coolly before she turned on Iaso's shoulder. "No."

Lucky dragged Rena to her feet, making Rena's head slump down into her chest. It jerked back up and rolled lazily to her shoulder. "Let go of me."

Lucky did. Rena shakily stood upright before her knees buckled under herself and she fell face forward down onto the hardwood floor. Iaso crawled down from the seat he was sitting in, looped Rena's arm around his neck.

Lucky caught on and looped Rena's other arm around her neck, following Iaso to carry Rena to her bed. I looked back at where Rena had fallen. There was a pool of blood, bubbles floating on the surface. When I saw Rena being carried I hadn't seen her bleeding.

I sighed and grabbed a towel. Rena was sick, and not just sick. Super sick, ecspecially if she was puking up blood.

Poor Rena! I feel so bad about making her sick, but... well, it was vital to the story. Anyways, please review! Please, just click that button just below this! It's so simple! Please!

I mean: It's right here. Below this. Just reach and click that mouse or touch pad to review!


	8. Chapter 8

Part 7- Snow- and a lot of it

Rena wasn't healing well. Honestly: she wasn't healing at all. I guess I've just been so wrapped up thining about stupis stuff that I forget that my aunt Mei and uncle Al were at the castle. Heck, I forgot I was distantly related to Iaso. Let's see... Mei and Ling are brother and sister, she married Al which makes Al his brother and Ed (dad) too, which makes me and Iaso cousins? Maybe?

After two weeks of her being sick we were all ready to stab her. She slept constantly, waking up occasionally to puke in a bucket, all of it blood, and to say hi to Iaso, Lucky, and I.

A week after her being in a sickroom I saw my cousin (my actual cousin). Marigold had golden eyes and the blackest of hair you could ever see- like coal. Her hair was down and wavy and the first time I saw her she had been sitting with Rena, talking nonstop while Rena started nodding off to sleep.

She sat down a cup next to the sink and continued talking. "Your really sick Rena, you know what, you should probably drink this water so you don't die of dehydration, ok Rena?"

By now Rena was sleeping and didn't seem to notice Marigold, even so the nine year old continued talking,

"I mean, it would be horrible if you dehydrated because then you'd have more problems, and your throat would be all sore and you couldn't talk and you'd feel like a fish out of water and you'd probably die and we'd have to send your dead body back to your mom and dad, is it true your an only child Rena?"

*To readers, from author: when Marigold starts talking, ignore her... or only half listen, she's pretty annoying*

"I'm an only child too! That's so exciting, and do you like snow? I do, I like to go outside while it's snowing here in Xing... even if it's only for a few days. Usually it only snows for two or three days so it's like what is the point of it snowing at all, right? But, the thing is is that when it does snow it's snows like two feet, last year we got snowed in and we had to stay inside for like the whole two days it didn't melt. Do you think that it'll happen again?"

"No," Iaso said shortly, stepping into the room behind me. He dropped a bunch of flowers he had picked with Lucky earlier in the day in a vase on top of a beside table. Lucky sent him a quick smile almost to say: "Thank you, you are like the best brother ever."

Rena cracked open an eye, sitting up and only stopping briefly to vomit into a bucket that Lucky handed her. I hate it when I'm sick. I hate it even more when other people are sick. ecspecially when they're puking up blood.

"Thanks... for shutting the loud one up."

Marigold didn't look the least bit offended. To be honest she looked like she had won a prize. "Well, it should start snowing in about two weeks, I'd suggest covering the garden, or else it might die."

"It won't die," Iaso said sharply, reaching into a dishpan beside Rena's bed and placng it on top of the sick girl's head. "I doubt it will snow this year."

"I wouldn't be so sure pretty boy, you can't tell weather. On top of that I wouldn't really be guessing with so many peoples lifes on the line, now would you?" Marigold smirked, all the joy and talkitive manner gone from her face replaced by a b=violent look. "After all, some things are more than they seem, aren't they Lucky?" Marigold touched a thin chain around Lucky's neck before flouncing out of the room.

"What the was that about?" Iaso said giving a wierd look at Lucky.

** X**

Two weeks after discovering Rena's sickness, it did start to snow. We were all huddled up in Rena's sickroom, Iaso replacing the flowers like he did everyday, everyone except Marigold. When it started snowing she leaped into the room, finger pointing, a green scarf wrapped around her neck, just to scream at Iaso.

"Told you so! Told you so!"

Everyone ignored her. Like they always do.

The snow didn't let up and after two hours Al and Mei came into the room to remove Marigold and take her home. She didn't put up a fight, just allowed them to drag her away. After Rena had fallen asleep again, I looked out the window. I cringed. Eight inches of snow piled in front of the main door, four inches against the window pane, barely able to see.

"Well, this shouuld be fun," Lucky said unhappily. She opened the window a crack, cold wind blowing into the warm room. She closed it with a snap. "And cold."

"Darn Marigold for being right," Iaso said unhappily, sitting down in a chair next to Rena's bed. He opened a drawer and pulled out a piece of paper. "Let's see... Rena's middle name is Jane? She told me it was Livvi!"

"Well, use your brain Iaso, obviously she lied. Why are you looking at her medical records?" Ling said, his arm propped against the doorframe. He had a tendency to just pop out of nowhere, at extremely random times.

He had his hair tied back and had on his regular peasant clothes , as he called them. He wore the peasant clothes whenever he didn't have to wear his emporer robes- which was often.

**X**

Rena suppressed her giggle. Lucky had started chasing Iaso around the large room. We had led Rena out of her sickroom for a the first time in two weeks. After being trapped in the palace for over three days, Lucky apparently had enough of having to continuously talk to Iaso. So when she asked if he wanted to switch it up, he had asked how, and she had pulled out a weapon and attacked him.

She nipped him once or twice with the kunai, never digging in farther than his clothing. After some time she got bored and started painting. She had Iaso 'pose' for her and half an hour later she had a picture of a fish.

"That doesn't look like him." Rena stated, peering at the picture closely then snapping her head up to look at Iaso. "If it is, we have a major problem."

"And what would that be?" Lucky asked, folding her mouth quickly, a smile creeping up on her face.

"Well, if he was a fish, then fish have learned to breathe above water, which means we're in a lot of trouble."

Luckys jaw dropped down, close to her shoulders, I swear, before recovering and saying happily "I suppose, you got me there."

**X**

**Author Note: well... I'm bored. Don't really feel like leaving an author note... can't think of anything to say. So... bye! **


	9. Backstory 2

Backstory- Roy & Riza

Jean Havaoc always looked up to Mustang. Whether it was because he was Fuhrer, because he saved his life, or for some other unknown reason, he looked up to him. This all changed when Rena was born.

The colonel-ahem, _Fuher_- had married Riza Hawkeye a year earlier. Of course, everyone was happy- except maybe Fullmetal who had to pay out six hundred cenz to Havaoc. When Rena was born, he turned into a Hughes, literally. He would pop out of nowhere, listing off facts about his newborn daughter.

"Did you know that my daughter was born a month early? Quite a fighter isn't she!"

"Rena was born eighteen inches and eight pounds! Isn't that fabulous!"

"She has the best blond hair you could ever see! She's so beautiful! And black eyes too!"

Pretty soon, everyone except for Havaoc just skirted around him in the hallway, when he seemed to catch up on them they would all have a different response.

Falman: I think I hear Barry The Chopper beating my apartment. Better go check!

Ed: Look! A potted plant! *Mustang turn around* Gotta go check on Axis and Sam! See you in an hour!

Ross: Um... I should probably go get Armstrong...

Havaoc naver had an excuse. He owed that much to Mustang, even if it drove him freaking bonkers.

But, it paid up, when Rena was brought into the office for the first time ("Two weeks old and still a kicker!" Mustang had exclaimed) Havaoc was the only one to report when he called. Hawkeye held the baby out to Havaoc, and he had taken it in his hands.

The baby giggled at him. She was wearing a yellow button up onezi, her feet covered up. He looked at her coal black eyes. She kicked him.

From then on Havaoc was sure that Rena liked him. He was certain that the little girl had found someone besides her mother and father to be friends with. For two months straight he took it upon him to become her little unpaid babysitter.

Mustang sometimes left it to Havaoc to take care of Rena, sometimes he would have to threaten to drop kick him out the window unless Havaoc got away from his daughter.

When Rena hit her first birthday, Havoac was there for her birthday- as was Ed, only for the satsifaction of Sam. Havaoc remebered giving Rena a box of toys- not that she didn't already have a ton, she had giant teddy bears, ragdolls, teething rings...

Much to both Mustang's and Havaoc's dismay Rena's first word was: "Mommy."

People rather walk by Hawkeye in the hallway, usually because she wasn't so obsessed, or talking about how she would take care of the baby later, or how cute her daughter was. Really, it was just relief that they could stop with there backs to the wall, trying to edge away from Mustang.

_Three Years Later_

"Rena? Are you awake? Well, I'm coming in anyways!" thirty seconds later, Rena's whote door to her bedroom swung wide open and in tumbled a four year old Sam.

"Good morning." Rena said, placing a marker in her pages and throwing her arms behind her head. It was normal for Sam to just bust into her room unexpected.

"Rena! Get up! I have a visitor! C'mon!"

Sam rolled Rena off her large four poster pink bed. "Well, you managed to get me out of bed. Did you ever condider I was sick?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "You may get sick often, however when you are sick, you vomit up blood, let's face it."

Rena agreed silently, remembering the one time she had gotten violently sick at the Elric's house and puked on Axis's shoes. He wasn't really mad, since Rena couldn't control it, more grossed out that he now had a girl's AB blood type all over his shoes.

"Be home at five," Riza said, handing Rena her sweater. Rena nodded her head, her parents worried about her too much, just because she attracted diseases like a magnet and had to take a huge amount of pills a day and was a walking disaster.

"She will!" Sam said officially, hitting herself in the forehead with the side of her hand. "Ouch."

Riza smiled sympathetically, before ruffling the top of Rena's head. "Try to stay warm, we don't need a repeat of last week." Rena cringed as her mother said that. She remembered faintly not being able to move, puking up that vile red half clotted blood, her voice hoarse and a whisper.

"Ok, so this guy, he's like huge! He's seriously tall! Taller than Axis and Axis's is half a year older than him!" Sam said, walking across the dreary ice covered grass. The clouds turned and were gray, ready to soak them in heavy rain.

"So he's older than me..."

"Yeah, but he's really nice! And...um..."

"I'm officially the youngest."

"Don't say it like that! Iaso's only here because he's going to have a little brother or sister soon!"

"Yeah, can't wait to tell him that nightmare."

"Rena this is Iaso. Iaso this is Rena." Sam jestered back and forth between the two of them. Iaso was atleast two heads taller than Rena and longer hair than her. She classified him as a girl.

"Well, nice to meet you Rena." He said sticking out a hand to her, thinking that he ws pulling a fast one, Rena grabbed his hand and flipped him onto his back.

Sam's face went into a blank smile. "Maybe I should have mentioned that Rena likes to practice defense and attacks."

"Yeah, I see that now." Iaso said, puching himself up from the frozen ground. "Is that how you greet everybody?"

"Yes."

"Great, try working on your enthusaism skills and you got yourself set for life."

Sam laughed half heartedly.

**X**

Rena had gone home soaked in mud. She had to have her dad take off her shoes and socks, which made a wierd slurping sound as they came off her feet. Then she had to have her mom undress her the rest of the way. Then a warm bath, pajamas, and bed. She wasn't that hungry. This was how it started:

Iaso had been talking to Axis about how he'd rather have a brother than a sister when Axis's decided to bring around the fact that one time Rena had puked on his shoes. She pushed him the mud puddle. Axis pulled Iaso in woth him blindly, who threw a mudball at Sam. In the end, they were all in huge mud puddle when Roy had come around to pick up his daughter, he had found them all soaked and laughing.

Right before she left, Rena hit Iaso with a mudball.

**Ok... Well... It looks like Rena used to hate Iaso... I find it funny that they're falling in live now... ^-^ **

**Wait... I'm the one writing this thing! Fudge... 0.o **

**I'll post the next one soon! I promise! If... darn... why are everybody else's fanfics so much more fanscinating?**


	10. Chapter 10

Part 9-

Ed could've mentally slapped himself. After years and years of knowing Mustang, heck, working for him, he thought he might have actually gathered some sort of way of thinking. Ecspecially when he had a daughter. He knew that Mustang couldn't classify a toad from a frog, or find a killler in less than a year, but he at least thought that he could worry abput his daiughter. Even if it was only for five minutes.

"She isn't here. Sam hasn't been here for over a week. She went to see Al." Ed said. Currently he was having his leg adjusted by Winry since last night while working he had hit the nerves wrong and they were all screwed up. He didn't feel like bleeding from his head violently _and _talking to Mustang. It was complete and utter torture. "It didn't occur to you that it was wierd that she would at our house for a whole week?"

"Well, that's what she said she was doing and I just realized that she forgot her pills-" he held up a small cylinder bottle filled with red pills the size of small ring.

"It took you a week to realize that she had forgotten to take her pills?" Ed asked, wincing as Winry pulled on a screw. "And I thought I said to warn me when you were going to connect the nerves!"

Winry put the wrench on her lap and sighed "I thought that maybe while you were distracted it would hurt less."

"WELL IT DIDN'T!" Ed yelled. Axis poked his head into the room and looked then continued on his way. Stopping his parents from fighting wasn't on his routine. Beside, Mustang was there, it couldn't get that bad.

"RENA IS MISSING!" Mustnag yelled over them, just as Wirnry was ab out to yell back at Ed with a snarky comeback.

Winry adjusted another screw which made Ed flinch, curl up his mouth and not say anything. "Maybe she went to Xing with Sam."

Mustang made a disgusted face. "With that Xingese boy there? I thought Rena hated him?"

Winry tapped Ed's leg to show that she was done with his leg. He flexed it defensivly and threw himself down into a chair. "They used to hate each other. The hate only came from Rena because she hates being left out. I think it's funny that your daughter ended up being shorter than mine," Ed said with a grim smile on his face.

**X**

"Rena! You got a message!" The one and only time I have heard Iaso call Rena by her actually name.

That made Luckty give Rena a suspicious look and then go back to writing in a journal. Rena opened her eyes in disbelief, her matted hair swinging off the bed wildly. "Since when do you call me by my actual name?" she asked as Iaso came into the room. His left hand carried a yellow envelope and he placed it in Rena's hand.

"Since I thought your father was watching me through an envelope."

I swiveled my head to look at the yellow envelope. In quick and spikey handwriting was:

Rena Jane Hawkeye-Maustang

Palace in Xing

The return adress was what must have gotten to everyone else:

Roy Mustang

Central, Amestris

"Can we throw it away?" asked Iaso hopefully. Rena shook her head.

"Nope, I have to open it. He's my dad, would you igore a letter from your dad?" Without waiting for an answer, Rena opened the letter with a soft rip in the paper.

Two pieces of paper fell from the envelope, and Rena picked up one, I picked up the other. The one I picked up was labeled on the front: Read first.

I switched envelopes with Rena. She read it aloud:

"Rena, Please read this one first. Mostly because your father's letter won't make any sense. I'm not mad at you for going to Xing, it's just that next time I hope that you at least tell me the truth. AND remember your pills next time. ~Hawkeye."

Rena held out her hand for the next letter, taking it from me. She read it, her eyes skimming back and forth across the page.

"I'M HERE!" 

"And here I was thinking you had finally died," Lucky sighed, pulling her shawl closer to her as Marigold bounded into the room. Marigold flashed a smile at us all, munching on an apple.

"Hi Marigold." We all sang, looking around the her to the pale yellow hallway.

**X**

"Ace of clubs?" I asked, flipping over the card. A seven of hearts stared back up at me. Lucky smiled then threw a card at Iaso. This game was soooo wierd and I had no idea what was going on, but it was fun.

"Six of diamonds." Iaso said, he flipped the card over and revealed a six of diamonds, he passed it to Rena.

"Ace of clubs!" Lucky said, her face set she flipped it over, revealing the card I thought was next. She passed it to me. Marigold looked out the window- for once- silent. It was a surprise for all of us thinking that maybe she had died or something.

"What is the point of this game?" She asked abruptly, turning around.

"Nothing." Lucky responded, straightening the deck of cards. "That's why it's fun."

"How's it fun if there's no point?" Marigold asked. She threw her scarf behind her back just as Lucky pulled out a kunai. "So sorry, I would love to fight, but I must go home."

She exited the room. Lucky screamed unintellagible words before thowing the kunai at the closed door. "She has got to be the single most annoyong soul I have ever had to listen to!"

Nobody argued with her and silently returned to the game.

**Capitulo nueve realizado. Gracias por leer. Translation~ Chapter nine done. Thank you for reading!**

**I'm glad that so many of you are reading this! However I am totally mistified... can you leave in a review who your favorite OC character is?**

**List:**

**Marigold**

**Lucky**

**Eliza Samuel (Sam)**

**Iaso**

**Rena **

**Axis**


	11. Chapter 11

Part 10- Dreaming

_Wait, that door doesn't open. Wait... how do I know that? Right, Lucky told me. She drops a ring in the keyhole before inserting the key. Rena drops down the small door first, Marigold follows next before Lucky can even say anything. Lucky goes next and I follow, holding a candle carefully to avoid the dripping wax. Farther down I can distantly see Iaso leading Rena down the stairs, holding a candle._

_Stairs and stairs and stairs. Endless stairs, threatening to trip us at any second. Lucky rams into something. I hear the thump, she must have run ahead of Rena._

_I can't hear the swearing. Marigold's sighing and yelling swear words back at Lucky. Iaso's trying to break them up, having Rena hold the candle while he gets in between the two._

_Smart idea. The finally break from a fistfight, both of them clock Iaso in the face and open the shadowed door. Both the girls give each other a glare and then step into the door. _

_I put my arm around Rena's neck. She clenches a fist and follows. I can barely see a red stone around her neck. We follow the obnoxious duo through the door, picking up the Iaso on our way._

_There's rocks. And shrubs. No flowers. Everythings dead. I go to ask Lucky a question but my voice is blocked. She's sitting on a rock, almost like she owns the world._

_What the...? Lucky's standing near Marigold, her eye's fierce, the only time I've seen her wear a kimono. Why was that? Marigold's birthday or something. _

_I turn back to Rena and Iaso. _

_"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING?" _

_Rena's voice. Iaso was acting strange. He had pinned Rena against a wall and, holding her neck. His hands clapsed around her neck and tugged. A chain fell off into his hands. Rena's eyes blinked and she whispered something I couldn't hear. Her head lolled back and Iaso dropped down to the ground._

_Iaso opened his mouth and drops the necklace in making a slurping sound as it drops down his throat. Lucky punches him. Marigold's dropped down to Rena's side. _

_Iaso and Lucky are going at it. I step in. Lucky's fled before I can say anything. The first punch hurts, and the face changes. I'm not fighting Iaso, I'm fighting Rena. The face melts and dusts off to see an otline of Rena. _

_Lucky's unclapsing something from her neck. She puts it next to Marigold who's already drawn an alkahestry symbol in the red dug up earth. She drops five kunai's into the points of the star. She puts her hands in the circle and takes a deep breath. Her's and Rena's body starts glowing._

_"It's time to die."_

I jolt awake, smacking my head into a bookcase that juts out right above my head. I mentally curse myself, bookcases, and people who make bookcases.

When I walk downstairs, I find Iaso half asleep while eating toast and eggs. One of the maids comes up behind him and smacks him with her broom before retreating to her closet.

"Goooooood moring, dear brother! Good morning Sam!" Lucky's down the stairs. She's still in her baby blue pajama's and carrying a stuffed animal but doesn't seem the least bit embarrassed.

She takes a seat in between her mom and dad and starts inhaling (Ok, not literally.) everything that she see's.

Iaso is asleep. This time, Lucky drops a pineapple on his head. Was that necessary? Yes.

"Up until five in the morning and this is the thanks I get?" Iaso asks bitterly, rubbing his head.

"Maybe you wouldn't be up until five in the morning if you didn't take care of Rena all freaking night. She pukes! SO WHAT? She has it under control with that phil-" Lucky stumbled and returned to her eggs.

Iaso gives me a stare before rushing upstairs towards Rena's room.

"Yup."

I found Iaso in Rena's room, pacing the floor and looking sick, clenching his hands tight.

"Um..."

"She has a philosphers stone. Look here." He jesters me over towards Rena and I stepover lightly. Peeking out from under her pink pajamas is a red stone attached to a chain.

"That could be a ruby." I suggested. Iaso shook his head. "I would smash it into the floor for you but I think that would be a bad idea."

"Because it's a ruby?"

"Ye- No! What? No! I have a different theory that we need to ask Rena about."

Rena stirred in her bed. "And we ask her soon."

**Author's note: Before you all start yelling and screaming at me, Rena got the philosphers stone from her father. Remember how Rena's been puking up blood since like ever? Well, no child could survive that much loss of blood. **

**Also, I was going to write this all in one go, and then I got bored and decided to write the rest tomorrow.**


	12. Chapter 12

Part 11- Philosphers stone

Rena blinked at the ceiling. She twitched under her blankets and immediatly sat bolt right up. "Excuse me? Can I help you?"

Iaso took a calming breath. "The philosphers stone. You. Carry. It." He gritted his teeth and swiveled his head to stare at Rena, almost daring her to say something.

Rena crawled back under her blankets. "I'm still tired. I think I'll go back to sleep."

Iaso ripped her blankets off, revealing Rena in her blue pajamas, curled up into a ball. It doesn't seem possible, but you never noticed the necklace, it seemed to be one with Rena and always there. Now, now that it could possibly be a philosphers stone, it seemed to be...

"Well? Is it?" Iaso's voice snapped me out of my thinking. Rena stretched her arms up like a little kid for her blankets.

"I shall never tell unless you give me my blankets."

Iaso hesitated. I nodded my head.

"Thank you." Rena said, situating the blankets over her legs and pulling them up to her chin. "Ok, I'll start at the beginning."

"No bloody or gory details," I inputted. Rena acknowledged this.

"Ok, I was born May 13, a friday. I was born four pounds and two ounces, thirteen inches long. Mom and Dad were taken aside and told that I had the equivalent of three months to live. My blood clotted, but was still fairly runny. My splean didn't work properly so I puked up blood, and my heart wouldn't produce enough blood to equal it out. The doctors said the only solution was for me to get a better heart or die. The solution? The philosphers stone. Due to equivalent exchange I still puked the blood up but, the stone bounded me to the world, I was a person, even if the stone ran half my life."

"So, the people used to make the philosphers stone... you allow them to keep your body intact by letting them rule half your life?" Iaso asked in disbelief.

"Yes. My whole life has pretty much been a lie. I wouldn't be angry with you if you guys wanted to stop being my friend."

"Rena-"

"I'm not finished yet. You can't be in such a rush to dump our friendship." She cleareed her throat. "When I turned three, I had a sister. Y-you guys remeber the grave right? That was her. She lived long enough to breath her first gulp of air."

I wish she wouldn't bring up her sister. Anything but that. She smiled in defeat and thuded into the sheets. "Of course, I love Mom and Dad, and you guys, Lucky and Marigold, and your guys' mom and dad, but sometimes, I just plain out wish I were dead."

Later, after dinner (Rena insisted she was feeling better and made us let her go downstairs for dinner. Get this: She can walk!), and we had helped Rena go back to her room even though she didn't want help, Iaso started a discussion with me.

"Sam, you know how Rena hads a philosphers stone?"

"Yeah."

"That means right now she's at her peak. She'd be best for fighting right now. We have to start training her! And you, being a quarter part philospher stone, you'd be good for fighting too!"

"Iaso? Do you know something we don't? There's no reason to fight!"

Iaso hung his head. "When I came to Amestrisis a year ago, it wa sto do research. I've told you this a hundred times before. I was studying the philsphers stone. Lucky can feel everything and anything, especially big souls. The one thing she's bad at was covered up souls. But, she picked one up. I figured that a philosphers stone would be best to stop it. We had one in our hands, but we didn't know how to use it. So, I went to study it. Being that you were part philosphers stone, I befriended you. I promised myself not to be actual friends, just friend."

He sighs, than leans on one of his knees. "Then, I met Rena. It's hard not to like her. She's likeable, optimistic, and you take pity on her because of her condition. Incidently, I was friends with you and her. It wasn't part of the plan, but it made things easier. Almost."

He stopped and leaned back onto his chair. Apparently he was done woth his story. It left an empty feeling knowing that Rena and Iaso both had pretty cool parts in their lifetime, and all I had was a good natured, know-it-all brother. Yippie.

**Author Note: Glad I finally wrote that! Definately glad that I got that wrote down. *relieved of stress***


	13. Chapter 13

Part... um, something...

There was a break. It worried me. Just a few seconds ago there was the sound of metal against metal. Rena had been going through some serious training on Iaso's comand, and was only allowed to use her gun. We'd work with Alchemy later he explained.

So, we took turns fighting her. I had gone first, to my dismay. Rena was fine using her gun to attack, she's scarier when she's blocking. She can use her gun, and push your weapon towards yourself, so your pretty much defenseless.

After me went Marigold, who had to use Alchemy, like me. The thing that surprised me was that she used clap Alchemy. When I had asked her about it, she had explained that you had to think of yourself as the alchemy sign. And to top that one off, she showed me that earlier she had painted them on her palms.

Lucky was for last and best, according to Iaso (which, by the way, this was his idea, why isn't he praticipating?), and she was. The battle had lasted for ten minutes before we all sat down to watch.

After another five minutes, I watched the colorful butterflies that were found in Xing. Marigold began explaining all of them, the Tigis with a wingspan of exactly five centimeters, the Wikile, which was found only in August.

Then everything stopped. Lucky hovered above Rena, who was lying on the ground. Then Rena tackled Lucky. It was kind of funny, seeing the two roll around against the ground, there bodies trying to get the best of each other. Rena ended up winning.

"I see someone's feeling better." Iaso said, messing with the pigtails in Rena's hair. She brushed him off.

"Yeah. I guess I am."

"MY DRESS!" Lucky said, looking down at her dress. It had sand covering the whole front of it.

"kind of reminds you of a teddy bear doesn't it?" Marigold inputed, looking distatefully at Lucky.

"Ok, don't even start with that!"

"Yeah, like I _loved_ having my hair cut to my chin!"

"You ruined my teddy bear!"

"By accident! I didn't do it on purpose! You brought it on yourself when cut my hair!"

"Can we stay off the teddy bear? Good. Let's not forget, you also demolished my tea set, cut my favorite kimono into ribbons, stole my shoes, and put toothpaste in a piece of my cake once."

"Ok, I didn't do the toothpaste thing. I found toothpaste in my cake, too."

"Yeah, let's just minus that from the thousand other things you did!"

"Your not exactly clear either! Itching powder in my bed sheets, kicked my off the side of a dock into five feet water, and rammed me into an expensive vase!"

Back and forth. It was soooo wierd. I mean, there the same age, share tons of intrests, and have the same colored hair, why aren't they friends? And why do they hate each other?

"Anyways-"

"What the heck is going on?" I asked, jabbing my thumb in the direction of Marigold and Lucky, who had decided on wrestling it out.

"Ok, When Lucky and Marigold were little they used to be very good friends. Then one day when they were having a tea party Marigold accidently spilled some on Lucky's favorite teddy bear, and Lucky went nuts, I don't see the point though, the teddy bear made it."

"Uh-huh. What about the other stuff?"

"Lucky is overreacted, and Marigold just retaliates." Iaso explained.

"Well, that's nice." I said blankly. Said two girls joined us a second later, hair a mess, clothes ripped at the end and arms, Luckys necklase missing.

"Lucky! Were's your necklace?" Rena asked abruptly.

"Huh? Ah..." Lucky dropped to her knees and crawled. I shrugged and bent down too. I knew the chain she always wore was gold, but I had no idea what it was adorned with.

Pretty soon we were all on our knees, searching for it, Marigold was digging in a certain area. Rena was combing an area by the flowers with Iaso helping her, and Lucky was searching where her and Marigold had been fighting.

"Found it!" Marigold held up a chain with a key attatched. She handed it to Lucky, who hugged her immediatly.

"I'm sorry for cutting your hair."

"Yeah, I'm sorry for spilling tea on your teddy bear, when it wasn't really me."

"Then..."

Marigold shrugged.

"Maybe your cursed..."

"Highly doubt that."

"And-"

"Ok, this is probably the stupidest conversation you two have ever had." Iaso exclaimed, slamming his head into a wall.

Marigold smiled. "Keep hitting your head and you won't live to see your sister's birthday tommorrow!"

"It's your birhthday tommorrow?" Iaso asked, turning his head to look at Lucky. You could almost see the discomfort in his voice. It was wierd.

"YES! Did you forget again?" She placed her head in her hand. "Your not that smart of a brother as I used to think you were."

"You used to think that when you were five, your turning nine tommorrow."

We decided to go back inside, since we were done with Rena's practice. We passed a small door, above a bookcase. It had cobwes clinging to it, apparently no one had touched it in several centuries.

"Hey, doesn't that open?" Rena stopped us, pointing out the door above the bookcase. She tiltied her head to the side. "I could've sworn that it opened..."

"It does, I have the key, but it doesn't reach far enough to turn the lock."

"Yeah, besides, me and Lucky have to think about our birthday tomorrow!" Marigold said, arms around Lucky's shoulder.

There was a pause.

"Ok, I'll try to unlock it." Lucky said. She jumped and grabbed th edge of the bookcase, and lifted herself up. I wondered how it didn't tip over. Then again, she probably didn't weigh more than fifty pounds.

She took the chain off her neck and inserted it into the keyhole. She twisted but it didn't open. "See?" she leaped off the side.

"Maybe if you put something in there before that, so that it can reach," Rena suggested, sliding a ring off her finger.

"If you say so," She jumped and landed swiftly, reachin for the ring. She popped it into the keyhole and inserted the key. The door opened.

"Ok, why does it work for Rena?" Lucky said angerily, sticking her head into the door. "I HATE YOU DOOR!"

**Author note: sorry for neglecting this story. I got a request from awesomenaruto to write a story, so I got busy writing that, and kind of forgot this story...**

**Sorry.**


	14. Chapter 14

"It's our birthday!"

"Yeah, I kinda figured," Iaso said, looking up and down at the two matching girl. They both wore sky blue kimono's with black belts.

Both the girls nodded in unison.

"Happy birthday!" Rena said, sneaking up from behind, and hugging them both, just as Lucky was about to stuff her face full of pancakes. Rena was getting better, which meant her training would increase today- she would start learning more about alchemy.

"Lucky-sama, try to refrain from getting syrup on your mouth, it is best to remain dignified and cute, like a young lady, at all times," one of the maids stopped and wiped Lucky's mouth, giving a distinct glare at Rena.

"I try to, but I like being messy. It's who I am."

"No Lucky-sama, you are the emporer and empresses daughter, why can't you be more like your brother?"

The maid pointed at Iaso just as he dumped water over Rena's head. It was a joke and they were both playing, but the maid didn't seem to find it funny.

"Young master Iaso, we do not behave in such a way in the palace!"

"Relax Emma, they're just kids, and they like to have fun!" Iaso's dad had started speaking. He may come in at odd points, and start saying whatever is on his mind, but, he comes in handy when we were dealing with situations like this.

The maid let out a disaproving sigh, and scurried back to the kitchen, placing pancakes in front of Marigold. Then she went back to the kitchen, yet again, coming back with a bowl of fruit, eggs, biscuits, butter, and water (since Iaso used the last of it dumping it on Rena).

...

"If it opens, why not go through it?" I asked, pointing to the door above the bookcase. It wasn't really that great, holding a few spiders, ridden with cobwebs and mice, but it began to become an obsession, having to know what was in there.

"What if the stairs in there go on and on? And by the time we relized it our strength has run out?" Lucky asked smartly, crossing her arms.

"We won't know unless we go through," I pointed out. Apparently Iaso, Rena, and Marigold had nothing to say on this matter.

"And, if there's something under it? Don't forget I still haven't figured out were that aura came from. It think the bast thing to do is training," Lucky inputed.

"I agree," Iaso said, tugging at Rena's hair that fell down past her elbows.

"And I also vote that Iaso has to fight Rena today since it's mine and Marigold's birhtday!"

Iaso shrugged and we continued down the hall. I couldn't help myself but thinking about that door.

When we got to the sparring area, I began to wonder if Iaso was really going to fight Rena. I mean, it looked like he liked her (more than a friend) and her the same way, yet here they were, fighting.

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was wrong about everything in the world.

Lucky held up a flag...um... where did she get that? She brought it down. "BEGIN!"

Iaso's sword never actually looked sharp, until now, against poor fragile Rena. Rena slipped her flame alchemy glove on. She looked confident. A lot more confident than she did in Amestrisis.

She snapped. Red and orange flames shot out of it. Iaso leaped over to one side, skidding to a halt. "Ok, so now your attacking me?"

"That was the plan wasn't it?"

She attacked again, this time Iaso wasn't so lucky and the edge of his sweater caught on fire (he was still wearing Amestrian clothes because Lucky liked them better). Lucky tackled him and pulled of his sweater.

"Iaso!"

"Don't worry Lucky, I'm Ok."

"No! Look, you ruined precious material!" she hugged the sweater, in the middle of the cement pathway through the garden.

"How the hell are you able to produce flames here and not in Amestrisis?" Iaso asked, pointing at the glove that Rena had on.

"I actually don't know. Maybe because it's dry heat here, so there would be no water in the air, and would be easier to get past."

Iaso face went blank. Whenever Rena tries to explain something to either of us, we have no idea what she's taling about, and she ends up having to show us on a piece of paper.

"Great theory. Somehow I don't think that's it though."

"You just don't know what I said, right?"

Iaso went to attack Rena, darting with his sword out. She evaded, using her gun (Ok, is that thing made of iron or something? It still hasn't broke) to stop the attack, then pointing right at his chest.

"Yay! Rena wins!" Marigold bagan jumping up and down, arms out and hopping up and down.

**Yeah, this part is short, but, only because I'm bored and don't feel like writing today...**


	15. Chapter 15

After Rena won against Iaso, it was all Lucky liked to talk about, though I think that she actually was quite attatched to her brother, it didn't mean she couldn't mix it up.

And I was still deadset on finding out what was behind that door.

My mind was made up. Me, Rena, and Iaso were going to investigate the door while everyone else was asleep.

_Train, several miles away._

Axis looked out the window of the disappearing land mass known as Amestrisis. It was soon replaced by dust and dirt.

He couldn't understand why people liked it so much there.

It was a dirt filled empty wasteland.

But, he wanted to see his sister, Rena, and Iaso. And meet his cousin Marigold, and talk to the little one called Lucky.

_Castle, midnight_

"Does she always sleep up there?"

"No, and she is seriously starting to piss me off."

Lucky had curled herself up on top of the bookcase to sleep, blocking the entrance to the door.

"Is there any way to move her?" I asked, jabbing a finger in Lucky's direction.

"Only one way," Iaso said, pulling himself up. He grabbed ahold of Lucky's neck and softly pulled her down by her dress.

"You can't touch her directly or else she stirs," Iaso said, peeling off his white gloves that he was wearing.

"Good, take the necklace of hers." I said, just as Rena snatched it. I smiled and lifted her.

Wow, she was light.

She unlocked the door. It swung open. "Hey! There's a lot of steps in there!"

She grabbed my hand and pulled me up. I entered the door. Darkness filtered around me, and for a second I lost the direction I was going.

Iaso entered carrying matches and lit one over Rena's head. "There is a lot of steps."

"At least a thousand."

And that's how we ended up treking for an hour down the steps.

_Castle, outside the door, 1:00am_

"Ah, I'm so tired!" Axis said, stretching his arms as he stepped into the decorated hallway. He noticed that a black-haired girl sleeping on the floor in an awkward postion. Above that, an open door.

"What the-"

He pulled himself up the bookcase, it wobbled slighty, and he poked his head into the open door. He fell on his face and got up having a bump on his head.

Well, minds as well find the end of this.

**Author Note: Ok, this she be done in two chapters! YAY!**

**Well, thank god that Axis came into play!**

**He shall save the day. (Wait... does he have his gun on him? System check...)**


	16. Chapter 16

"Sam? Rena?" After entering the 'terrifying' door, it had been proven to be pitch black. Hoping to find some sort of light, or at least help, Axis had started calling for his sister and her friends. "Iaso?"

He edged alond the wall, feeling with the tips of his fingertips. But, all of it felt the same, smooth granite under a fine layer of broken brick.

"Samuel!"

Sam knew when somebody meant that they wanted her there now, ecspecially when they used her real first name.

_down a hundred or so steps._

"I'm tired of walking."

I ignored her.

"I'm ready to go to bed."

I continued to ignore her...

"Can we please turn back?"

"NO! And stop complaining!" I yelled, whirling around on my shoes.

Rena had long since then sat down against the wall, huddled into a ball, shivering.

It wasn't that cold.

"Something doesn't feel right here."

"Yeah, I'm starting to feel it too Sam."

And there we go. Stupid Xingese boy defending her.

"Oh come on, the door's right over there-"

There was a crash behind the door. My ears pricked up.

"I'm not going." Rena announced, crossing her arms.

I shrugged and pushed open the door, hoping that Iaso would get the hint and follow me. He did.

_Axis_

"I'm tired," he muttered, swinging his arms from side to side. After walking for two hours, who wouldn't be.

A second later there was a crashing sound and he jerked his head up. "Rena? Sam?"

There was a whimpering noise and Axis ran up the next few stairs, trying to find the source.

"Rena?"

"Axis? Is that you?"

He jogged up a few steps to see the blonde sitting down with her knees pulled up to her chest. There was a flashlight sitting next to her, facing the ceiling. At closer inspection you could see she was crying. "Rena, what's going on?"

"Iaso and Sam went through that door to see what was going on. They've been in there for a while and I don't think they're Ok."

"Ok, well, be careful, I'll go check."

_Sam_

We are going to die a slow and painful death.

This thing... it's not a humonculous, or a human, it's just a creature with a vendatta against all of our parents, making us, the children, the targets.

It's like all of the humonci's feelings wound up into this person, making it really just...

that.

"Well, I guess Rena was right to stay behind," laughed Iaso.

I wanted to send him a look that said: 'no freaking kidding.'

"Would this Rena be the one who is the colonel's daughter? The one who carries the philosphers stone?" It's voice was slithery and sick.

"N-no."

It's smile widened and I took a step back. "Well, this certainly makes things intresting. Hello dear Axis."

"Hello."

Axis slammed the door closed and came into the dim light. "I'm sorry to hear that your dieing."

"Nobody said I'm dieing."

"At least not yet."

Axis pulled out a gun, loaded it quickly, and placed his hand on the trigger.

He didn't shoot.

What the -

"Hey! You got the wrong target!"

In that split second that the creature turned around to see who was screaming, Rena jumped down onto it's head, wrapping her legs around it to keep it still. "Ok, go ahead and shoot it!"

There was a bang, and it was all over.

Thank god.

**Author note: Next chapter is end chapter. Axis, Sam, and Rena are going home. And I'm going to try and do at least a little Iaso X Rena fluff. At least. **

**Well, I'll be glad when this is over. I still have alot more ideas to write down. Maybe I'll go and write some Soul Eater...**


	17. Chapter 17

"We'll see you again, I'm sure of it." I said, brushing tears out of my eyes. The time had finally come to return to Amestris. And since trains only leave there once every two weeks, it was now, or never.

Rena's face had long since spilled over with tears, and I wasn't certain if I would actually have to pick her up and put her on the train. Right now currently, she had embraced Lucky into a rib-shatering hug, and refused to let go until the little girl promised to come see her every few months.

"Hey," I jump as Axis climbs down the side of the train, half of his hair blowing awkwardly in the wind. "The train conductor said he'd give us five more minutes, but if you ask me, sounds like he's getting on the pissy side."

I thank him, and pratically barrel into Rena.

She's still squeezing the life out of Lucky.

"We have to go in five minutes," I whisper, brushing the side of her golden hair softly. "You might want to wrap things up."

More tears spilled out of her eyes as she nodded.

It made me want to go and yell at the train conductor and tell him that we should have as much freaking time as we want. But, I knew after that, when we boarded the train, he'd probably kick us out into the sandy cloud of a desert.

Better be safe then sorry.

I give Lucky a quick hug, since she's rubbing her rib-cage gingerly, wincing slightly as Rena steers around her to say goodbye to Iaso.

"Next time you pick up something like that, don't include me," I hiss into the nine year old's ear. She chuckled nervously before throwing a glance over her shoulder.

"Train conductor man says it's time for us to leave, and if we ask for anymore time he's personally going to take our heads clean off our shoulders," Rena recited, clutching something in a white cloth.

I smile tightly, glancing back at Lucky and Iaso, who are waving happily.

I climbed on board, taking a seat next to Rena. The train starts chugging, slowly at first, then slowly gaining speed.

"BYE!"

I whip my head around to see Lucky waving from the small abandoned train station. Iaso is beside her, grabbing ahold of her shoulders to keep her from running.

I wave back half-heartedly, the sand is already starting to puff up around the tracks, and it's hard to breath.

I shut the window with a snap, glancing back at Axis, who is respecting us girls prviacy and banging his head repeatedly against a wall. Oh well.

"What's in the cloth?" I ask.

Almost an hour has gone past and I'm getting desperate for soem sort of conversation.

"I don't know."

I made a strangled sound. What?

She unwrapped the cloth carfully, folding each side down. In the middle was a ton of pictures, resting peacefully white side up.

She grabs a few of the photos, turning them up, and her face glows like a light bulb. She's happy.

"Look."

I turn the pictures towards me. There was one where Rena was playfully tugging at Iaso's hair, while he shot her pure venom, and another where Iaso had oushed her down into the mud. There was one with me included, a smiley face reffering a wrestling match between the two.

We continued to look at the pictures all the way home.

I laughed abruptly, sighing heavily.

"What?"

"I never got a cat named Lilac."

**Well, that's the end. I know, not exactly Rena X Iaso, ALL IN YOUR FACE, but it certainly was fluff. Also, if you recall, in chapter 2, Sam states that she wants a cat named Lilac. She never gets one.**

**~ If you want to know something intresting, Rena's disease in this story is what we know call Lukemia.**


End file.
